Coatings to impart grease, oil, wax or solvent repellency to certain base products have been known for some time. Demand for such coated products has grown enormously in recent years. In order to meet this demand, new coating compositions, coated base products, and apparatus and methods for applying such coatings to base products must be constantly developed and improved.
Additionally, manufacturers of coated base products strive to improve the physical properties of the base products, for example, improved rigidity, not only to produce superior products, but also to improve the safety of the manufacturing process. For example, paperboard is prone to frequent web breaks on the printing press. This can be a fire hazard. For instance, if a web break should occur in the dryer section of the printing operation a fire could be initiated.
Manufacturers have also been striving to develop coated base products that display no pinholes. This fosters the use of the coated base products in new applications. For example, because the coating displays no pinholes, the coating is impervious to ink. Not all inks are approved by the FDA for contacting food. This makes it is possible to utilize coated base products with all over print designs in applications in which a printed portion of the base product could contact food products, irrespective of whether the ink used is approved by the FDA for contacting food.